Knicks 100, Celtics 85: Boston’s losing streak reaches five

BOSTON — If this was indeed a first-round playoff preview, the Celtics have some work to do.

By TIM BRITTON

BOSTON — If this was indeed a first-round playoff preview, the Celtics have some work to do.

Behind 32 points off the bench from J.R. Smith, the Knicks handily defeated Boston, 100-85, at TD Garden on Tuesday night. It was the fifth straight loss for the Celts, who currently sit seventh in the Eastern Conference. New York moved into a virtual tie with Indiana for the second seed in the conference.

Perhaps Tuesday night was finally when the strange evolution of this Celtics season passed through the looking glass, right around the moment in the first half when Jordan Crawford’s significance became apparent. Without Kevin Garnett and Courtney Lee — to go along with the long-term losses of Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger — Boston was forced into lineups seldom seen this season.

They have been seldom seen for a reason.

“We have to find a way to figure it out,” said Paul Pierce. “This is the group we have. … We have no choice. This is what it is.”

“Our spirit was broken tonight during the game,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “It was one of those games.”

Jeff Green led the Celtics with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Pierce had 16 and Crawford, in his first start as a Celtic, had 14.

Carmelo Anthony added 29 points and eight boards for the Knicks.

With neither Garnett nor New York’s Tyson Chandler starting on the interior, each team decided to eschew the center position. In fact, they both eschewed the custom of positions altogether. The Celtics started two twos, two threes and a four; the Knicks went with two ones, a two and two threes. No player in either starting five topped 6-foot-9.

Without Garnett or Chandler to clean the glass, both teams crashed the boards for offensive putbacks at the rim. The Knicks did this more successfully, with their 15 offensive rebounds translating into 29 points. Boston’s seven offensive boards became just six second-chance points.

Combine that with 20 Celtics turnovers, and New York ended up taking 21 more shots than the Celtics.

“When you look at it, no one played well. They just had a lot of extra shots to miss, and they made a couple of them,” Rivers said. “That’s the difference in the game.”

Nobody exploited the openness of the game better than Smith. The Knicks had scored all of nine points in the game’s hideous first six minutes before Smith entered. They scored 49 in the final 18 minutes of the half, and the shift was not coincidental. Smith consistently took his defender off the dribble, and the help defense on the interior was slow, if it existed at all.

He hit the game’s biggest shot, a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to reestablish a 15-point advantage for the Knicks. It answered a Jason Terry trifecta on the other side.

Earlier, Smith had spearheaded New York’s critical 14-0 run in the second quarter, when the Knicks first grabbed control of the game. Smith started that run with a midrange jumper, and Steve Novak closed it with his second three of the quarter roughly four minutes later.

“Their small lineup was far more effective than out small lineup,” said Rivers. “Their small lineup attacked; our small lineup settled.”

The Celtics attempted to get back into the game in the third, but a 9-0 New York run pushed a seven-point game back out to 16.

Boston was as undone by its lack of a point guard and its lack of a center, committing 20 turnovers — tied for their third-most in a game this season. Three of their four worst turnover totals have come in March.

“We’ve got to play more as a team,” said Green.

“They kill us,” Rivers said of the turnovers. “If you’re not going to rebound and then you turn the ball over, you’re going to lose the game.”